Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

Living From The Edge

August 26, 2006

I am indebted to Jack Rosenberg who inspired this conversation.

I'm a human being.

Hello!

Who I am
ie my essence is divine everything/nothing-ness
which is both Lord Of The Universe, ruler of everything I see,
substance of all creation ... AND ... slave to humdrum day to day basic
dogshit
realities* like paying
the electricity bill and washing the dishes.

Living and being cognizant of only divine
everything/nothing-ness dishonors the essential predicament of
all human beings.

Living and being cognizant of only basic
dogshit realities
doesn't live life in all its splendor, in all its possibility,
and - as far as I can tell - isn't worth living at all.

My life is given by living from the edge ie coming from
where divine everything/nothing-ness starts becoming and
expressing itSelf as basic
dogshit realities,
thereby honoring them. That, for me, creates a possibility of living
authentically, of having life work, and of making a profound difference
which leaves a lasting legacy of transformation for the world.

Now that you're here, what greater calling is there than leaving a
lasting legacy of transformation for the world? Indeed, what else is
the point of being born? Now that you're here, you can't
reneg on your promise to be born. Take a look: did you,
indeed, promise to be born? Consider this: if who you are
is your word then you promised to be born. And now you're here. So
listen for the calling.

That's not easy to get. But it ain't easy being human. This thing
called life is risky business. Being human doesn't
come with an instruction manual nor does it come without an element of
risk. It could be said we start off lucky. We're born blonde or
tall or with 20/20 vision ... or not. We're born into
privilege
and wealth ... or not. We're born into peace ... or not. A child born
on O'ahu in Hawai'i faces a radically different almost certain
dogshit reality
future than a child born in Beirut Lebanon.

There's one thing luck can't be counted on to provide, indeed
can't provide, and that's transformation. Being
transformed (in other words, living from the edge) can't start
until you choose what you're born into. There's no coercion to do that.
In fact, there's more games out there and a bigger audience with a
listening for people who don't choose what they're born into and how it
doesn't work for them than there is with a listening for people who
choose what they're born into. That's
God's
ironic sense of wry humor. You can say what doesn't work for you in the
absence of choosing what you're born into. And yet until you choose
what you're born into, nothing really works anyway.

Being human and choosing what you're born into shows up
distinct from being smart protoplasm on the edge where divine
everything/nothing-ness starts becoming all we see, hear,
complain about, laud,
resist,
embrace, avoid, strive for etc you know, love, pain, and the whole
dang thing. If I don't live there, I'm not much more than a rat in
a maze going down tunnels looking for cheese. As a rat in a maze I
strive to survive, and certainly there's a great deal of merit in
surviving richly ie in what we call doing well. But it's also
prone to disillusionment, disappointment, and eventually pondering the
inevitable question "Is this all there is?".

The answer is, of course,
inexorably
"Yes this is all there is". Spoken from survival, that's not good
news. But spoken from the edge, "This is all there is" has
entirely new possibilities.